Schiller spent an extensive amount of time working on the script, which was first submitted to MGM in February of 1981 (with a length of 111 pages) and then revised numerous times through January of the following year. SNL creator Lorne Michaels signed on as producer, with Bill Murray joining in a supporting role as a lunar bus conductor (yes, you read that correctly) and Dan Aykroyd popping in for a cameo. A number of other surprising names also enlisted including TV comedy legend Imogene Coca, stand-up pioneer Mort Sahl, 1950s pop staple Eddie Fisher, and Oscar-nominated actor Sam Jaffe (The Asphalt Jungle, 1950).
Also brought on to compose the film's soundtrack was Howard Shore, a Canadian composer who had risen to prominence working on the films of David Cronenberg (including Videodrome [1983], The Brood [1979] and Scanners [1981]) and who served as SNL's musical director from 1975 to 1980. (He would also return to the show for a one-year stint in 1985 after working on Martin Scorsese's After Hours.) He would remain Cronenberg's composer of choice, while Hollywood fame would soon arrive with his work on The Silence of the Lambs in 1991 and his lauded, Oscar-winning work on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as the subsequent The Hobbit features.
The loose plotline of Nothing Lasts Forever follows the adventures of Adam (Zach Galligan, soon to star in Gremlins), a pianist who publicly renounces his abilities at a Carnegie Hall performance and takes off for Europe. En route, a stranger urges him to return to America, where he finds the Port Authority exercising all control over New York City. Adam decides to become an artist instead despite his lack of training or talent, a decision that sends him into the shadowy underworld (literally) of the city along with the glamorous Mara (Playboy model Apollonia van Ravenstein). Soon his destiny takes a cosmic turn as he's sent to the moon where he meets what he believes to be his true love, Eloy (Bad Santa's [2003] Lauren Tom).
In its finished form, the film ran a tight 75 minutes with numerous tangents from the screenplay drafts discarded along the way. MGM/UA Classics announced a theatrical release for September of 1984, but the film was abruptly pulled and only surfaced for a few play days in Europe. Its reputation flourished almost entirely through word of mouth as the film itself, pedigree notwithstanding, refused to surface even on home video or TV airings. While a handful of films before it could be said to have some artistic similarities (most obviously Forbidden Zone [1980] and J-Men Forever [1979]), the feature's striking aesthetic (shot primarily in monochrome with a gaudy Technicolor segment in the middle) and freewheeling cut-and-paste approach to 20th-century pop culture still make it a fascinating curio capable of catching unaware viewers off guard.
By Nathaniel Thompson
